Demi Lovato: ‘Don’t Brand Yourself A Feminist If You Don’t Do The Work’

Demi Lovato came under fire back in February, after one of her tweets was largely presumed to to be geared toward Taylor Swift, and her silence regarding Kesha’s legal battle against Dr. Luke. While Swift did reportedly donate $250,000 to Kesha, presumably to help with legal fees, Lovato felt that gesture was an empty one. Now that some time has passed since she first tweeted, Lovato admits she may have gone a bit too far — but she’s not exactly rescinding her main point, either.

"I got too passionate. I get carried away on Twitter, and that's what I said, and that's that,” she said during an interview with Refinery29 when asked about her tweets.

But she elaborated further on her initial point -- which was lost in the tabloid fray at the time -- though she was careful not to name Swift directly.

"Listen, there's nothing positive that comes from pitting women against each other," Lovato continued. "There are women that I don't get along with and that's fine. My thing is, don't brand yourself a feminist if you don't do the work. I have an immense amount of respect for women like Lena Dunham...or Beyoncé, who make amazing political statements through their work."

Lovato recognizes, though, that the real focus should be on supporting those who come forward as victims of abuse.

“I don’t know what happened, and it’s none of my business, to be honest,” she said. “My thing was whether it did or didn’t happen, this is somebody coming forward. And unfortunately, there’s way too much shame put on victims coming forward talking about being date-raped, raped, sexually abused. So then people feel like they can’t come forward anymore because they’ll just be torn to shreds.”

Read Demi Lovato's full interview over at Refinery29's official website.